Eligible organisations will need ot be based in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

You will be eligible to apply if you are:

• A registered charity, a Charitable Incorporate Organisation (CIO) or Community Interest Company (CIC)
• Can commit to providing a statement of use of funds, relevant monitoring and evaluation feedback, and communications and campaigns collateral (photos, video, etc)
• Based in the UK
• Can demonstrate how you will reach defined groups who are less likely to be reached by hospice care and the Dying Matters campaign (see below for more details)

The grants are available as follows:

• Small workshop grants up to £999
• Project grants between £1,000 and £5,000

You can apply for the amount that you need for your project. Larger grants would enable larger scale community projects such as a theatre production, photography exhibition or community mural. Smaller grants would enable and encourage smaller organisations to apply to run smaller scale workshop activities, such as one-off workshops of poetry, singing or art.

There is no right or wrong, but it’s worth saying that we have a particular focus on community-led arts and culture engagement projects that reach new and diverse audiences, with a particular focus on inequalities.

We want to see how you are reaching defined groups that are less likely to be reached by hospice care and the Dying Matters campaign. We will also be interested in looking at how you approach the subject of death in an innovative and culturally relevant way.

Example projects could be:

• Art or photography installation / exhibition with audience participation, interaction, or feedback
• Theatre production / dance / comedy act / musical / concert addressing Dying Matters core themes
• A collectively produced film or series of films
• Community based mural, street art or mosaic project
• An audience interactive online book of poetry/prose/photography

Projects or programmes should finish by the end of 2022. 

Hospice UK's research has shown that certain groups are less likely to benefit from hospice care. By extension, we know that certain communities are less likely to be reached by the Dying Matters campaign, and more generally, are less likely to engage in positive conversations about death and dying.

As part of our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, we therefore require that grant applications demonstrate how they will reach one of the following groups, as identified in Hospice UK's recent report on equality of access on equality in end of life care.

• Ethnic minorities
• People experiencing homelessness
• Imprisoned people
• LGBT+ people
• People living in remote and rural areas
• People living in poverty, deprivation and with lower socioeconomic status
• People living with learning disabilities
   

Unfortunately we are not able to fund the following:

• Sponsorship or fundraising events, promotional videos or films
• Projects that have started before April 2022 (though if you ran a clearly identified pilot phase before this date, you're not precluded from making an application to develop it further)
• Groups operating overseas
• Hospices
• Individuals
• Already well established activities on death and dying such as Death Cafes or workshops on Advance Care Planning (as these activities are already common)
• Activities taking place in formal healthcare settings

If you are an individual artist and are interested in this grants programme, share this with local community arts and culture groups indicating that you’d be available to work with them.

Hospices up and down the country already put on a huge number of brilliant activities as part of Dying Matters, and to encourage conversations about death and dying. Hospice UK also has an established set of grants programmes to fund innovation and improvement in hospice care.

As Hospice UK and Dying Matters, we don't want to replicate what hospices are already doing in their communities and are particularly keen to engage the arts and culture sector in our mission, so have taken the decision to restrict this particular fund to those groups.

The applications will be assessed against the eligibility criteria and shortlisted, those shortlisted may be asked to submit additional information to support their application. If further information is required, a member of the programme staff will request it.

During the second stage all shortlisted applications will be considered by the Dying Matters Grants Panel, led by Dying Matters chair, Simon Blake OBE, along with others with expertise in community engagement and equality, diversity and inclusion work.

Applications are open from November 2021 until 21 February 2022.

You will find out if your application was successful by the 31 March 2022. 

As a condition of your grant, you will be required to send us a final impact report at the end of the grant funded period of your project.   You will be asked for further information about what you have achieved and what impact the work has had on the subject of death in an innovative and culturally relevant way through arts and culture.  We will send you a template form nearer the time for you to complete.

Dignity Funerals is a long-term supporter of the Dying Matters campaign, and has made a donation to fund this Community Grants Programme. Although helping to make these grants happen through their funding, Dignity Funerals is not involved in shortlisting or decision-making when it comes to allocating our grants. All shortlisted applications will be considered by the Dying Matters Grants Panel, led by Dying Matters chair, Simon Blake OBE, along with others with expertise in community engagement and equality, diversity and inclusion work.

If you are based in Scotland, visit our sister organisation, Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief  who run their own grants programmes for organisations and communities.